


Happy

by TheRisingWing



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Canon Compliant, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Pre-Slash, Short & Sweet, Slow Burn, Smart Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24754540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRisingWing/pseuds/TheRisingWing
Summary: One-shot, post-Buu. It was just another training day for the prince of all Saiyans, until his forever rival and pain-in-the-ass popped the question he didn't ever want to think about answering.
Relationships: Son Goku/Vegeta (Dragon Ball)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 61
Collections: Kakavege Week, Thunder & Lightning





	Happy

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is set at any point in time after the Buu saga to the events in Super. Might become part of a larger slow-burn fic if I am able to write one. Imagine that they've been falling in love for awhile and our fav tall Saiyan decided to move things ahead a bit in his innocent way.
> 
> PS: I love who Vegeta becomes in DBS, and Goku's mix of innocence and invulnerable cheeriness is also part of what I tried to bring out in this fic.

It was just another day for sparring, just another day of Vegeta sparring with his chosen rival and battle companion til sunset. Just another day of battle singing through Vegeta’s veins and coursing in his blood, another day of almost enjoying the time spent on bashing his said partner’s head in, and Vegeta could almost do this forever, losing himself in the familiar rhythm of sparring against the other Saiyan. That is, until both Saiyans missed each other’s bone-crushing punch by a literal hair, and Kakarot’s savage grin morphed into something softer, smaller but more radiant.

“I like you, Vegeta,” the younger Saiyan proclaimed happily, easily, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Beat.

_ Did Kakarot just-- _ Inwardly, Vegeta’s heart paused, skipped a beat, and resumed beating madly; outwardly, he rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Kakarot, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Kakarot pouted like the child he really was inside. The sight of his pushed-out bottom lip made Vegeta want to punch him. It was somehow embarrassing that the grown man and Saiyan behaved that way, and even more infuriating that he somehow looked so fetching doing it. "But Vegeta... I really do like you."

Vegeta felt heat gather in his cheeks; the urge to knock Kakarot's lights out suddenly tripled. "You're a fool, Kakarot." How could this idiot even mean that with all the name-calling, insulting, and rebuffing that Vegeta did to him on a daily basis? Not to mention the liking Vegeta had for smashing his face in at every opportunity. The proud prince voiced his thoughts aloud: "You don't even know what you're talking about -- I insult and beat you up every chance I get. How you could even like someone like that is beyond me. Beyond everyone but especially me." The words had come out a little too raw for Vegeta's liking; the prince turned away and tossed a little "Baka!" over his shoulder to repair the damage. "Stop wasting time and let's start training."

Kakarot, the big idiot, wasn't even fazed, nor did he take up Vegeta’s silent plea to move on from the matter like the prince wanted him to. Figured, this was Kakarot, he never did anything Vegeta wanted him to, whether it was to roll over dead at his feet when the prince wanted to kill him or shut up and move on from stupid trivial uncomfortable topics . Instead, the taller Saiyan brought a hand to the back of his neck, in a manner that was much too familiar to Vegeta by now, and frowned thoughtfully. "It's true that you're mean a lot of the time, and you hit very hard even when you don't have to. But I don't know...I like you because you make me happy." The taller Saiyan flashed Vegeta a brilliant grin, looking for all the world unbothered by his own words, the sole giveaway being the fact that he was a little red himself. "And I hope that I can make you happy too. One day, if not now."

The heat in Vegeta’s face was a burning inferno now. "Stop blabbering and start getting your ass kicked, Kakarot."

The nastiness in him was automatic now. He wouldn't blame Kakarot for leaving, or giving up -- Vegeta himself was tired of his own difficult temperament sometimes. But Kakarot just let out a cheerful chuckle, as if Vegeta's words just bounced off him, as if Vegeta somehow truly did make him happy, and settled into his pre-combat stance.

\-----------------

Shortly after they finished pummelling one another and collapsing where they stood, the two Saiyans were found utterly collapsed on the ground.

Vegeta looked up to the sky, his body aching all over, muscles and mind gloriously empty, in the way that only a full day of all-out training could leave him. This was the closest to peace as Vegeta could call it, the moments after a mostly evenly-matched sparring session with his rival, knowing he'd worked himself to the full, bleeding or bruised in some places (with his rival in the same state, of course; that was important and a key part to his peace), recovering from the long bout of inhuman exertion. Peace in knowing he could recoup and recover his energy safely without being backstabbed or having to keep up his guard-- a form of trust that was alien to him in the life before Earth -- peace in recuperating with perhaps the only person he would fully trust to not kick him when he was already down.

Vegeta felt truly relaxed, even lethargic. He couldn't be bothered to get up, couldn't even be bothered to turn his head upon hearing the sounds of Kakarot's movements.

"Do I, though? At least sometimes?" The question came seemingly out of the blue and Vegeta knew without turning his head that Kakarot was looking right at him.

"What are you even babbling about, Kakarot, " Vegeta replied lazily, with no vitriol or true inquiry in his words. After beating the life out of each other, he was too tired and satisfied, even a little too tranquil, to deal with third-class Saiyan bullshit, thank you very much.

Alas, Kakarot took his reply to be the literal question that it was not. Vegeta found his vision blocked by spiky, unruly hair as the younger Saiyan leaned over him, getting his visage into Vegeta's line of sight and coming  _ wayyyyy _ too close for comfort. "Do  _ I  _ make you happy?"

"Get your ugly mug out of my face," Vegeta replied automatically, his brain not even processing the words yet, only focused on hyperventilating about how large and how close Kakarot's face was. Mercifully, the taller Saiyan shifted back and up to allow more reasonable space between them, though he was still leaning slightly over Vegeta.

"Do I ...make you happy? Even if only sometimes?" Kakarot's visage (which had been too close,  _ way _ too close) was slightly pink, but he still met Vegeta's gaze determinedly, as if indicating that he would persist with the line of questioning until he got an answer. Vegera considered smacking his face to change the topic, but dropped it: the only person arguably more stubborn than Kakarot was Vegeta himself and possibly Bulma -- the prince knew there was no getting him to drop the subject, whatever his rebuttal. Feeling his cheeks heat up once more, Vegeta turned his gaze to one side, away from Kakarot.  _ You had to go spoil the peace didn't you? _ he inwardly berated the younger Saiyan.

The prolonged silence did nothing to deter Kakarot. "Well? Do I?" the younger man persisted annoyingly. Vegeta noted that the uncertainty in the other Saiyan's voice had grown, so he slanted his eyes to the other man before looking away. Kakarot was definitely looking a bit downcast and unsure, which was out of place on either of them post-training.

"What does it even matter, Kakarot? And no, don't answer that, it was rhetorical." The Saiyan prince made as if to get up, now thoroughly annoyed at everything: himself, for feeling uncomfortable in what should have been a trivial question of no importance; Kakarot, for destroying the initial post-training tranquility; the universe, for just existing and putting him in this awkward limbo with Kakarot's sudden bout of emotions.

Of course the dumbass would ignore it and take the question literally once again. "It does matter," Kakarot insisted. "I want to know that I can make you happy -- that I did or have, even if sometimes. If I haven't, I want to know how I can make you happy, like you make me happy."

_ Gah, too many happys in one sentence! _ "Ugh," Vegeta let out a sound of disgust, at odds with how his heart somehow simultaneously expanded and contracted at those words. "Kakarot, I don't train with you for these stupid fillers of conversation- or bonding - or whatever it is you think you're doing. It's time to go home." He was kneeling on his haunches now, ready to launch himself up and fly back to the safety of Capsule Corp, away from over-inquisitive sentimental overly tall third-class imbeciles. 

"Please don't run from me, Vegeta." Something in Kakarot's voic -- a shake he wasn’t sure he didn’t imagine -- rooted Vegeta to the spot; risking another glance at the younger Saiyan, Vegeta found that he was looking determinedly at a spot on Vegeta's shoulder instead of actually looking at Vegeta himself. That alone drove the prince to the realisation that this was also an uncomfortable situation for Kakarot himself.

_ So why do you persist in asking , you fool? _

The younger saiyan fumbled a little under the prince’s glare, but held his ground. "...I see you smirking sometime. And sometimes you look content enough, like just now, after we trained. But I don't know for sure if it's because of battle or because maybe being with me makes you happy." The sentence ended in the tone of a question. Kakarot's cheeks were becoming pinker; in the afterglow of a brutal training session, it was somehow -- maddeningly -- attractive. "Because being with you makes me really happy, Vegeta. And I want to know if I can ever make you feel like that."

The solid sincerity in Kakarot's voice could have brought a lump to the throat of a lesser man. As it was, Vegeta found himself distinctly unsettled at Kakarot's apparent discomfort at being so open. In his own way, Kakarot was very impervious to vulnerability, with his lackadaisical and easygoing attitude making him almost utterly closed off to such things - it would be easier to psychoanalyze a rock. Apparently this question was so important that it was worth risking Kakarot’s own brand of stoicism to be vulnerable for it.

Vegeta also found himself pondering the answer.  _ Was  _ he happy? More to the point, did being with Kakarot make him happy--was the younger Saiyan able to evoke such positive emotions from within him? He wasn't sure he knew exactly what happiness was, not the type that Bulma seemed to experience in her lavish parties or Kakarot's friends in their mundane daily lives. But the tranquility he felt just now post-spar, before Kakarot thoughtlessly destroyed it, or the pleasant sensation of knowing that sparring with his rival would always be a good time..would that count as happiness?

Kakarot was still staring at him (or his left shoulder) expectantly, almost painfully.

"You...know the answer to that yourself, Kakarot."  _ And that's all I'll ever say in the matter. _ "Now stop being so ridiculous and go home, unless you want another round of me kicking your ass." Despite the harshness of his tone, Vegeta caught Kakarot's eyes intentionally, not sure himself why he felt the need to know that Kakarot would truly know the answer.

Kakarot was smiling. Not his big, idiotic grin, nor his battle-exhilarated smile -- just a small, intimate ( _ cute _ ) smile that conveyed his warmth and happiness upon hearing the older Saiyan's reply. In that moment, Kakarot resembled a small sun; in that moment, Vegeta could see, for one blinding second, his meaning behind how happy Vegeta could make him feel.

It was strange. Humbling. And terrifying, all at once, as Vegeta felt his own heart grow at the sight of Kakarot being truly happy. It couldn't be that seeing Kakarot happy made him happy too, could it? How far he had fallen, the mighty Saiyan prince.

"Wipe that stupid smile off your face before I punch it off your face,  _ baka _ ."

Kakarot laughed, his carefree manner back full-force. "Aww, I can't help it, Vegeta. You just make me so--"

"One more word, and I'm knocking you out and leaving you here overnight."

Goku's laugh rang clear and unbridled, and Vegeta couldn't deny how the pesky thing he called a heart seemed to expand with it.

_ I hope you always laugh and smile like that around me. _

**Author's Note:**

> The last line was meant to be ambiguous as to who said/thought it. 
> 
> This is my first work in this fandom; I'm still new to DBS (left the fandom a long time) and I'm still grasping their characters as well as getting back into writing fight scenes. This is also the first thing I've written in 3 years, and initially I thought to keep it private, but I know how happy a good story about my fav pairing can make me...so here is some of that happiness for you guys hopefully!
> 
> Do leave a comment or some love!


End file.
